A Reader

Thesis is done, but life hasn't found a way to uncomplicate itself. But, I'm updating this blog--finally. So, here is a post. I hope the next one doesn't take me a couple of years to write.

I received via email an unexpected but very welcomed comment from a reader. It really made my day/week/year… While I received this a while back, I think of it from time to time.

Here it is:

Hi Janine,

We don't know each other, I just stumbled upon one of your old blog posts and it made me laugh so much! The post is dated November 2006, "Starship Troopers vs. The Brain Sucking Vagina", and, although it's quite concerning overall, this was hilarious: "[...] throughout the film the soldiers stand at attention (giant penises) and use their huge guns (giant penises) to kill, and their medical instruments (giant penises) to poke, prod, and rape the Brain Bug in one of the final scenes. At the end of the film it is suggested that the troopers will defeat the alien race, because they are recruiting more soldiers (more potential giant penises)."

I don't know if you're aware of it, but the image of penis was extremely widespread in several real fascist [c]ountries, particularly in Italy. Images of towers, swords, guns, rifles and verbs such as "fertilizing", "conquering", etc. were carefully selected because of their supposed relationship with men's virility. It seems that such (medieval) idea is still very alive, which is quite concerning... However, you expressed it clearly, creatively and, perhaps unwillingly, funny! Thanks for giving me something worth reading, in this era of pointless "list posts" blogs. :)

It was really nice to receive some positive feedback about my writing. What's even more fulfilling is that someone enjoyed my writing and had a good laugh (and not in the "OMG this writing is so horrible, hahaha" kind of way).

So, fuck you, Prof. M., (one day I'll have the balls to write out her name--maybe when I am published somewhere besides my blog) for telling me my writing sucked and that I shouldn't be in the English Master's program. Hahaha.

Resolutions Crap

The procrastinator gene embedded in my DNA makes it physically impossible for me to do anything before a deadline. I missed the New Year's Resolution tradition by three days. And I only have one resolution so far. I'm going to join Project 52. Follow them on Twitter @p52info or visit the site http://project52.info/

Basically, all you have to do is keep up with the project by writing one blog entry a week for a year. Sounds doable. So, I'm game.

I started by importing my other blogs into this blog. I wasn't keeping up with any of them, so maybe now that they are under one roof the task of updating won't be so cumbersome. We'll see...

Aggressive Driving My Ass

I love the rhetoric the FHP uses to describe drivers like me. Aggressive.

Here's something I just saw a few minutes ago and applies to anyone who drives in South Florida:

FHP will be cracking down on those who tailgate, improperly change lanes or ignore traffic signals over the next two days. Troopers will also keep an eye out for drivers violating the Move Over Law or driving under the influence. http://www.justnews.com/traffic/20222628/detail.html

Wonderful. I tailgate, improperly change lanes, ignore traffic signals, and violate the Move Over Law. I do not, however, drive under the influence of alcohol. But it seems that I do drive under the influence of the stupidity of other drivers.

I tailgate behind people driving in the left lane at 65 or below who are passing NO ONE.

I am forced to improperly change lanes because slower traffic does not yield. Actually, no one yields. What is a yield, anyways? So, I am left with no other option except to pass on the right and swerve in and out of traffic if I want to get where I am going any time within the next century.

I must ignore traffic signals, because the douche-bags driving so fucking slow on the left hand lane are usually texting, half-asleep, day-dreaming, or a combination of the three, and have not noticed they have left their turn signal on for the past 5 miles. Not to mention, many people still have not discovered what a turn signal is, or what the difference is between left and right.

As for the Move Over Law. I cannot move over for stopped FHP because it is impossible to get out of the left lane when everyone around you has come to a complete stop because of this damn law. Yey to more fender-benders, pissed off motorists, and traffic stand-stills that come out of nowhere forcing you to slam your breaks and pray the driver behind you is paying attention! W00t!

Can't we enforce a SLOWER TRAFFIC KEEP RIGHT law, so the left lane is already mostly clear of traffic and safer for FHP and motorists who have to pull off the road? Isn't that the smarter more intelligent option?

I guess not, since Florida has no such law in place. I don't know why I am surprised.

Driving faster does not necessarily mean driving dangerously. A fast driver must pay more attention to the road. You cannot drive at 80 while being preoccupied with your phones, passengers, switching stations, reading, or putting on makeup. It's almost impossible. You are forced to pay attention at higher speeds. Going slower just means more time to comer mierda (translation= eat shit; context translation= be innatentive)!

Germany's autobahn has no set speed limit, although 80mph is recommended. They also have significantly less accidents than we do here in the states. Go figure.

So, I will continue to drive intelligently--uh--I mean aggressively. If you're cruising on the left updating your facebook status, I will cut you off so that you can appreciate the rear-end of my car and before I do that I will tail-gate your ass.

Consuming Robots

No. Consuming robots is not on my list at allconsuming.net. Consuming robots are robots that actually eat biological matter in order to... um... stay alive? I came across this link a few days ago on digg.com and you can read the original article here.

What's weird to me is not the zombie-ish fetishism I felt when I first saw the headline, but rather how freaking awesome it would be if cars or other machines could run off of biological matter. Oh. Wait... that's old news right? Damn. Oh well. I guess flesh-eating robots sounds better than flesh-eating Prius any day.

Perspectives

Since it's been a year since I've posted...

Since I'm working on my thesis once more...

Since I'm working on various creative projects (visual art and writing)...

I'm going to make my Mystified by Popular Culture blog my depository for all things me.

Whoa. That sounds so conceited.

I hope this blog will still be a place I can rant about stupid social conventions that I hope our generation, or the next, or the next will find a way to dismantle and replace with all new parts. But, it will be a place for other things and thoughts as well. Time for a new perspective.

MIA

I've been busy with so many things lately that I haven't had time to blog. Usually, I try to write an entry with a little bit of substance and that usually requires some time. But something has been driving me crazy and I wanted to post it here and maybe expand on it later when I have time...

I cannot fathom or understand the duplicity and utterly obvious contradictions that our culture blatantly screams out in our faces (the kind of screaming that causes spit to splash on your face--this is the kind of obviousness that I am talking about)! Anyways, why (and I really want to know the WHY of this issue), why does our culture scare the crap out of pregnant women (don't do this, don't eat that)? Why is a pregnant woman told, "Gee, you should hold off on that yummy and otherwise pretty healthy piece of Salmon because it contains mercury," but then, once the baby is born inject them with a bunch of vaccinations that may contain mercury or preservatives that are probably not really all that great for the baby???

I know what my answer to this question is... but I want to know how the medical industry/field or whatever justifies many of these kinds of contradictions. 

Off Topic Rant

I just got home. Traffic was horrible. The proposal for my thesis remains a scattered jumble of ideas that don't seem to come together in the sentence I write.

Anyways, to get out of the monotony of thinking about Lacan this morning I browsed on over to digg.com and saw an entry for Best Colleges of 2008. I had to check where my school ranks and what chances I have of getting into a good PhD program.

Haha. I might as well discard my futile attempts at writing a thesis because there doesn't seem to be much hopes in the way of me getting into a good program and later a good job.

Here's some of the verbiage from the U.S. News & World Report website on how they breakdown their ranking system. See what you think about it.

Student selectivity (15 percent). A school's academic atmosphere is determined in part by the abilities and ambitions of the student body. We therefore factor in test scores of enrollees on the Critical Reading and Math portions of the SAT or Composite ACT score (50 percent of the selectivity score); the proportion of enrolled freshmen (for all national universities and liberal arts colleges) who graduated in the top 10 percent of their high school classes and (for institutions in the universities-master's and baccalaureate colleges) the top 25 percent (40 percent); and the acceptance rate, or the ratio of students admitted to applicants (10 percent). The data are for the fall 2006 entering class. (source)

Can SAT and ACT scores really measure ambition? Wow! I had no idea!

So, any schools or employers who take this crap into consideration when looking at applicants can assume that any prospective students who previously attended a low ranking school will have less ability and less ambition than someone who attends a higher ranking school?

Hey, I can do that!

I'm supposed to be writing my thesis right now. There are over fifty library books sitting all over my floor and I need to sort through them between today and tomorrow. I much rather read stuff on the internet and catch up with all of the feeds I have neglected in the past weeks than tackle the gargantuan task of thesis writing that lays before me.

Anyways, in honor of useful and insightful procrastination here is another article from another great blog, Critical Miami, which relates both to my thesis in writing and Miami.

How, you ask--simple. This article exposes the elusive art of editing a la Miami Herald!

A little off topic...

This isn't about travel or things to do, but I just read a well-written article on Stuck On The Palmetto that I think everyone should read.

The article is not cheerful or uplifting--in fact, I hate thinking that such a thing is possible in this world.

Danger! Perpetual Road Construction

Well, as any true Miami native knows--it's not Miami unless the roadway you are driving on is under some kind of construction. The epidemic of constant roadway construction only seems to get worse and worse as the time goes on.

Here's an example of what happened to Tony and I returning home after a fun night out at a local restaurant this past Friday. We are driving north on LeJeune/8th Avenue when we hit some major traffic and come to a complete stop. We know there is heavy construction on LeJeune in front of MIA, but that's been the case for years. Nothing new. Well, we eventually see that LeJeune is closed to all through traffic. There were no signs warning us of the road closure up ahead and subsequently we are forced to reroute onto the 836, which is void of detour signs.

Ok...no biggie. We're natives. We know our way around. But what about tourists?

It was appalling that on a Friday night, whoever is in charge of deciding when construction gets done, would actually choose that time to close such a major thoroughfare.

It's ridiculous.

Well...we continue on our way and the exit off of the 836 that we wanted to take was also closed. Imagine that.

We had to drive all the way to the Palmetto Expressway and come back towards LeJeune via the NW 36th Street exit--which is sort of like driving in a "u" then cutting across the top part--a HUGE detour!

I'm not sure if these closures were announced ahead of time, but there still should have been plenty of signs giving drivers enough forewarning in order to allow them to decide on alternates. Instead, the lack of signs just dumped drivers on a highway with additional closures in the middle of the night. What a wonderful situation to find oneself in.

Oh...and it was raining!

My advice, get one of those GPS systems in your car, if you're a tourist--and even for people that live here that might not be a bad idea--or just be aware of different routes you can use to get to your destination.